Marketing automation has revolutionized marketing and sales processes for all types of businesses. Even non-profits, associations, and educational institutions can benefit from an expertly executed marketing automation effort. The robots are taking over!
Marketing Automation and Lead Nurturing in the Time of COVID-19 Read More »
How a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic evolves will change from crisis to crisis, however, the five crisis stages of Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination, and Reform will provide business owners a clearer path to navigate to the next normal.
How to Survive a Crisis Read More »
When buying higher-priced, customized, or used goods, or services, you can always negotiate for price concessions.
How to Get Price Concessions In One-Off Negotiations Read More »
Most entrepreneurs fail to realize that they can manipulate supply and demand. By gaining control over these two variables, businesses can gain control over pricing and profit margins.
How to Manipulate Supply and Demand for Profit Read More »
There are many factors that good negotiators try to control to give them a competitive edge in their negotiations.
How to Achieve a Competitive Advantage in Negotiations Read More »
In business, we are always negotiating with suppliers, vendors, customers, and employees. The “I FORESAW IT” mnemonic is a powerful tool created by Seth Freeman that sums up what a negotiator should follow to systematically prepare for any important negotiation. Each letter reminds you of questions you want to ask yourself and then answer as part of your preparation for a negotiation.
10 Step Process to Get the Best Deal in Every Negotiation Read More »
As a business owner you will be forced to negotiate with suppliers, employees, and customers. There is some basic business negotiation knowledge every entrepreneur needs to understand to negotiate the best deals possible.
What You Need to Know About Business Negotiations Read More »
The collapse of a business or industry does not have to be a crisis. It actually represents an opportunity for entrepreneurs with vision who can act quickly
How an Economic Downturn Creates Huge New Opportunities Read More »
Recent state regulations focused on the Marketplace Facilitator has eased some of the burdens for small businesses and individuals who sell products via the online marketplace.
Marketplace Facilitator Laws – Why You Need to Know About Them Read More »
If you have the ability to act on new business opportunities during a bad economy, great fortunes may await you. It is time to work on that business idea.
Six Ways to Make Money in a Bad Economy Read More »
Federal Income Taxes Are Daunting for Small Businesses. To Provide A Reference for The Small Business Owner I Have Listed the Most Common Tax Forms and Schedules That You Are Likely to Encounter as A Small Business Owner and What They Are Used for.
You Need to Know Your Small Business Tax Forms Read More »
Resumes are about listing your credentials. Unfortunately, resumes are self-reported and contain exaggerations, and are therefore, discounted by employers. Today, Google is the new resume.
Why You Need to Develop a Powerful Personal Brand Read More »
If Your Product Is Made (In Whole or In Part) In America, You May Want to Consider Adding The “Made In USA” Messages to Your Marketing Efforts.
The 7 Biggest Considerations When Promoting “Made in USA” Products Read More »
More workers are working from home. Here are some ideas to consider as you shift your workforce from working at company offices to a remote workforce working from home.
How to Effectively Deal with a Remote Workforce Read More »
Beliefs drive our behaviors that lead to our results. Beliefs are the cause, behaviors the effect, and success is the predictable result. Successful entrepreneurs know their behaviors are driven by their beliefs and that it is their behaviors that allow them to succeed. You have been conditioned to avoid failure and to live a life of mediocrity.
Belief Systems – You Have Been Conditioned To Be Mediocre Read More »
College Is A Breeding Ground for Many Bad Habits That Are Not Only Not Valued in The Business and Entrepreneurial World but Are Incompatible with The Person’s Career Success.
5 Bad Habits You Learn in College That You Need to Avoid Read More »
Successful entrepreneurs know that it is not revenue or sales that count, but the gross margin you can produce from your sales. Without a healthy gross margin, your sales will not produce enough gross profit to cover your operating expenses and return a profit to the owners.
You Need to Know How a Drug Dealer Mindset Will Ruin Your Hustle Read More »
The rapid expansion of knowledge requires a commitment to lifelong learning. A traditional college education no longer meets that need. Lifelong learning today leverages online content sources and is a must for anyone trying to stay current with their education.
Education is About Lifelong Learning Not College Read More »
Working Capital – What Does It Actually Mean? Why Is It So Critical to Understand What It Means, How to Calculate It, And Why It’s Important to The Success of Your Business?
Working Capital: What Is It and Why Do You Need It? Read More »
While Getting A College Degree Is Right for Some People and For Some Occupations It No Longer Should Be Considered the Default Answer for All Young People to Achieve Career Success in Life.
College is No Longer a Guarantee for Success Read More »
A SWOT Analysis Looks at A Project or Business Venture by Focusing on The Strengths and Weaknesses of The Business Compared to The Competition as Well as The Opportunities and Threats from Changes in Macroeconomic Conditions.
SWOT Analysis – How to Conduct a Proper One Read More »
Good Marketers Know That to Generate More Sales You Need to Offer Multiple Pricing Tiers or Several Pricing Options for The Customer to Choose From.
Why You Need to Offer Multiple Product Pricing Tiers Read More »
Lean Startup Was Designed for New Businesses That Do Not Have an Extensive History of Producing Other Similar Products as Many Large Companies Do. The Lean Startup Method Lets A Business Learn and Discover as It Incrementally Builds A Product A Piece at A Time, Saving Time and Money.
Lean Startup – What You Need to Know Read More »
To Prosper in Business, You Need A Foundation of Solid Kenntnis Knowledge Through Firsthand Real-World Business Experiences Before You Dive in And Start Your Business.
What Is the Value of Real-World Business Experience as an Entrepreneur? Read More »
When it comes to Social Media marketing, there is an unexpected and often overlooked platform… Reddit.
Reddit Marketing – What You Need to Know Read More »
The three most common financial statements are the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement. They are produced by a company’s accounting software and look at what happened in the past. While these financial statements are often included in a business plan for an existing business, they are not part of the pre-start business plan.
3 Key Financial Statements- Balance Sheets, Income Statements and Cash Flow Statements Read More »
When considering key partners, you must consider the following questions: 1, Who are your key partners and who are your suppliers? 2, Which key resources are you acquiring from key partners and suppliers? 3, What key activities do your key partners and suppliers perform?
Key Partners and Your Business Model Read More »
The goal of Facebook Brand Awareness is to get Facebook Page likes so that you can accumulate a base of fans. You need to accumulate fans so your content will stand a better chance of reaching your target audience. The goal of brand awareness with Facebook marketing is to accumulate engagements.
Brand Awareness with Facebook Marketing – How to Unlock the Power Read More »
The basic Facebook marketing sales funnel has four levels- brand awareness, lead generation, direct sales, and customer service. Each level has a different objective.
How to Master the Powerful Facebook Marketing Sales Funnel Read More »
When It Comes to Selling Equity to Fund A Small Business Venture, You Need to Understand There Are 3 Types of Investors and They Are Not Created Equal.
How to Unlock Investor Funding – 3 Kinds of Investors Read More »
I saw so much value in the CrashCourse entrepreneurship program that I used it as the basis of a extremely comprehensive post on explaining entrepreneurship. Each CrashCourse video acts as an introduction to a subject area followed by a bunch of related content and other resources. The result is what I think is an incredibly complete and multi-modal product to educate individuals in what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Everything You Wanted To Know About Entrepreneurship Read More »
A Critical Lesson Can Be Gleaned About A Person’s Entrepreneurial Mindset Based Upon Their Actions If Asked to Think About What They Would Do It Given Just A Single Ear of Corn.
Entrepreneurial Mindset – Here Is The Most Critical Characteristic Read More »
The decision to create distinctive (unique) or descriptive (explains what you do) branding can have a large impact on your business success.
Should Your Company B2B Branding be Distinctive or Descriptive? 6 Lessons Learned Read More »
Changes to Facebook’s algorithm has de-emphasized a business’s ability to get their organic content into a user’s news feed. A business can no longer just focus on producing meaningful content to get their brand seen by the user. Today, Facebook has evolved into more of a paid marketing platform than an organic one. For your content to get in front of prospects, it requires your business to run Facebook ads.
Getting Started with Facebook Ads Read More »
Inside every small business owner, there are 3 personas, each competing for time as the leader. The three personas are the technical person (work-focused), the President (inwardly-focused), and the Chief Executive Officer or CEO (outwardly focused). To succeed, a business must possess all three personas.
The Anatomy of a Business Owner Read More »
When it comes to Facebook marketing basics, the marketer needs to understand the difference between business and personal accounts, the criteria used to determine what shows up a news feed, and how Facebook interprets relevance based on engagement.
Facebook Marketing – What You Need to Know Read More »
This business plan template and guide is the result of 20 years of their research into the types of business plans that help entrepreneurs and executives raise funding and build thriving companies. It’s primarily for those who have never created a business plan, but there’s plenty of advice for those who have written one or many plans before.
Business Plan Template and Guide Read More »
It is time to set the record straight, and define what a side-hustle is and what it is not. Side hustles are not glorified hobbies or part-time jobs. There are four primary types of side hustles with eight associated attributes.
What is the Definition of a Side Hustle? Read More »
Having a consulting business is all about being able to monetize your knowledge as an expert consultant. Making money as a consultant is about being as efficiently pitched to hot prospects and only developing proposals that you can win.
How to Monetize your Knowledge with a Consulting Business (Pt 2) Read More »
Psychographics track a person’s interests, activities, and opinions. Knowing the psychographics of a specific person or locating people that share common psychographic characteristics is possible with a (LifeStyle) database that is part of a toolset called Reference USA (available at many libraries). This video is a quick tutorial on how to use the LifeStyle database portion of Reference USA to discover what a specific person’s interests are and how to locate anyone else that shares these same interests.
Video: Tutorial on How to Use the Data Axle (Formerly ReferenceUSA) LifeStyle Database Read More »
Having a consulting business is all about being able to monetize your knowledge as an expert consultant. Making money as a consultant is about being as efficient in engaging the right kind of clients with the least amount of effort. Knowing which clients to target, and then being able to employ the right prospecting techniques and qualifying your leads will make sure that you do not waste time marketing to prospects that are not likely to engage with you.
How to Monetize your Knowledge with a Consulting Business (Pt 1) Read More »
Brand Awareness has two goals. The first is moving the knowledge of your product or service from the unknown or unconscious mind to the conscious mind. The second is making a positive association with the brand. This video looks at several dozen free and low-cost ways to create brand awareness for your business.
Video: Low-Cost Brand Awareness Ideas Read More »
Our expectations are the engine of our perceptions. It is often not the underlining product that people are buying, but how it makes them feel. Small business owners are best served by not competing in the fat part of the adoption curve where competition is high. Instead, consider employing a different marketing narrative to appeal to more fringe consumers that the primary players have ignored.
How To Craft A Marketing Narrative To Attract Customers The Competitions Has Ignored Read More »
The mindset of “execute the plan” should be more accurately stated as “Plan as you execute” to reinforce the idea that businesses need to test assumptions.
You Need to Validate Your Assumptions Before You Execute the Plan Read More »
Founders with A New Solution Need to Develop A Minimally Viable Product to Both Validate Their Overall Idea or Concept to See If Others Will Exchange Money for It, And Also to Validate Each of The Key Features by Creating Mini-Experiments Before Investing Their Time and Energy into Engineering the Final Product.
How to Save Time and Money with A Minimal Viable Product (MVP) Read More »
Some industries are highly consolidated with few key players while others have few incumbents and are considered quite fragmented. We define these differences as an industry’s market structure.
What Is the Market Structure Read More »
When it comes to pitching investors or customers and high-stakes presentations, there are a number of mistakes presenters often make.
12 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make Pitching to Investors or Customers Read More »
Many businesses rely on observable signals when hiring or making promotions. Unfortunately, there is an entire class of people that are often overlooked and have the ability to really transform the fortunes of a business but often never hired or leave a company to become entrepreneurs based on what is known as information asymmetry
How to Crush Hiring by Recognizing Information Asymmetry Read More »
While You Can’t Directly Control Your Off-Page SEO Getting High-Quality Backlinks Can Often Be A Stumbling Block for Many Business Owners.
Where Can I Get Backlinks to Improve SEO? Read More »
The “Take One” box is essentially a brochure stand with the words “Take One” plastered on the front.
How to Improve Your Marketing with a “Take One” Box Read More »
When you are firing an employee either for cause or without cause, the business should have a process that it follows to avoid the risk of a wrongful termination lawsuit.
What You Need to Know Before Firing an Employee Read More »
A small business has three basic strategies to drive revenue. They can be sales, market, or product-led. Each has it their sweet spot.
How to Know Which Marketing and Sales Strategy is Best Read More »
Hiring an employee can often be a daunting task. The risk of making a bad hire can cost a business both time and money.
What You Need to Know Before Hiring an Employee Read More »
Many small businesses do not have an employee handbook, yet an employee handbook is one of the most important documents that a small business can have to prevent exposure to wrongful termination lawsuits, and a vital tool to set proper expectations with new employees.
Why Your Business Absolutely Needs an Employee Handbook Read More »
Whether you’re looking to open a new location or you’re looking for more information on any geographical area, DemographicsNow as all that data you’ll need.
Video: Market Research Using DemographicsNow Read More »
What Would Happen If A Disaster Struck Your Business Tomorrow? Would You Know What to Do? If You Had A Small Business Continuity Plan You Would.
How to Develop a Small Business Continuity Plan Read More »
When you target your niche very precisely and focus on activities your audience may actively participate in, you can engage in interruption marketing with little risk of turning your audience off, provided your ads target your viewer’s interests.
Effective Interruption Marketing Strategies Read More »
Keeping things secure from criminals or opportunists should be a priority for a small business owner. However, many small business owners fail to implement proper security strategies to protect a small business, since they have the mistaken belief that only larger business with more valuable assets are targeted by criminals.
3 Things You Need to Protect a Small Business Read More »
One of the problems with obtaining any kind of knowledge, especially when it comes to business, is that while some kinds of knowledge can be easily codified and articulated to others (Explicit Knowledge), there are also some forms of knowledge that are much harder to pass on and must be experienced (Tacit Knowledge).
Tacit Vs Explicit Knowledge – Why You Need To Know The Difference Read More »
What kind of small business insurance is right for your business? While there are many different kinds of small business insurance, here is a list of the most common types of insurance that a small business may want to consider.
10 Of the Most Common Forms of Business Insurance Read More »
The ultimate goal when defining your key activities as part of your Business Model Canvas exercise, is to help you discover what activities you need to address in order to differentiate your product or service from your competition.
Key Activities and Your Business Model Read More »
It Is Always A Good Idea To Review Your Risk Exposure From Time To Time And Develop A Plan To Deal With Things Before You Are Forced To Deal With Them During A Crisis.
How to Determine Your Financial and Governmental Business Risk Read More »
A company’s key resources allow it to create and deliver its value proposition, reach its target market and maintain a quality customer relationship with them so that the business can earn revenue. For a company to produce a product or service, it needs access to physical resources, intellectual resources, human resources, and financial resources.
Key Resources and Your Business Model Read More »
It Is Always A Good Idea To Review Your Risk Exposure From Time To Time And Develop A Plan To Deal With Things Before You Are Forced To Deal With Them In Real Time During A Crisis. Here Is A List Of Some Operational Business Risks Your Business May Face So You Can Consider Ways That Mitigate The Effects If Things Go Wrong.
How to Determine Your Operational Business Risk Read More »
A company’s cost structures represent the specific costs that the business will incur while operating under a particular business model. Through understanding the key resource, key activities, and its key partners, the business can determine its available cost structures. By choosing to be either Cost Driven or Value Driven and properly using Operating Leverage, the business can find its optimal cost structure.
Cost Structures and Your Business Model Read More »
Everyone Lies the Only Question Is the Degree to Which One Lies. Learn How to Become A Human Lie Detector to Know When You Are Being Deceived
How to Become A Human Lie Detector Read More »
When you suspect an individual may be lying, it may be time to ask a few questions to see how they react to give you further evidence of their deceptions.
How To Tell If Someone Is Lying Using Questioning Techniques Read More »
Wouldn’t it be nice to have your own personal lie detector to recognize if someone is being less than truthful? Well, there is a science that has identified ways to detect if a person is lying or being less than truthful just through observation.
How to Spot Lying & Deceptive Behaviors Read More »
Lying in business situations is very common. Most people are poor lie detectors because we want to believe the lie rather than look for clues that the other person is lying.
The Truth About Why Lying in Business is so Common Read More »
When it comes to defining your revenue streams, especially when you are developing a business model canvas, there are many factors that you need to consider that affect your potential income source. Will you use a fixed or dynamic pricing mechanism, and is your revenue based on transactional and reoccurring sources of revenue?
Revenue Streams and Your Business Model Read More »
Abraham Maslow theorized that people are motivated by five types of needs. How an employer meets these needs changes with each level and contributes toward employee job satisfaction resulting in lower turnover and higher employee retention.
How to Improve Employee Retention with Maslow’s Hierarchy Read More »
Both Demographic and Psychographic information play an important role in market research. They both provide insights into the customer and are fundamental inputs to a business’s marketing strategy.
What is the Difference Between Demographics and Psychographics? Read More »
Do you know what it costs when you make a bad hire? Do you know what it costs if one of your star employees leaves you to work for a competitor?
How to Calculate the Cost of Employee Turnover Read More »
The old economy had limitations on shelf space and the ability to target niche markets and as a result, companies only invested in offerings that appealed to a very large population. Today we live in the Long-Tail Economy, where a business can target a very specific and often very small market segment for next to nothing and distribution bottlenecks are vanishing, making the offering of niche products and services not only possible but more desirable by consumers.
The Long Tail Economy-What You Need to Know Read More »
For companies that have to compete for skilled talent, the world is getting harder every day. This is based not only on economic expansion but also on the demographics of the workforce.
How to Become an Employer of Choice and Why You Need to Read More »
WOW statements are crafted to invoke a “Wow, tell me more” response from the other party. They must create curiosity, contain imagery, and be brief.
How to Create a WOW Statement Read More »
As salespeople, we are frequently challenged about our claims and a good salesperson would be wise to incorporate techniques used by master debaters.
How to Win Arguments in Sales and Negotiations Read More »
Cognitive tunneling is one of the principal causes of accidents that involve human error and is also the source that prevents many business owners from seeing all possible solutions to everyday business problems causing them to make bad business decisions.
How to Avoid Cognitive Tunneling and Make Better Business Decisions Read More »
Entrepreneurs Should Be Skeptical Of All The Information They Consume Online. They Should Bring Into Question Any Motives That The Author Of The Content Many Have In The Way They Present The Information.
Lateral Reading: How To Learn To Tack Against The Winds Of Misinformation Read More »
The role of CEO and President, and sometimes Chairman of the Board are often used interchangeably. In a small business this might be true, but each title has a different set of duties.
CEO vs President – You Need to Know That Their Roles Are Different Read More »
If You Want To Get People To Buy From You, You Need To Understand The Reasons People Employ When Making Purchasing Decisions. Price May Be Important But What About Quality And Reputation? There Are Many Reasons Customer Buy From You.
You Need To Know The 8 Reasons Customers Buy From You Read More »
Search Engines Are Always in A Battle with Developers Attempting to Hack Their Algorithms. Therefore, Search Engines Have Adopted a Series of Practices to Try to Detect If the Site Is Trying to Cheat or If They Are Truly a Rising Star.
How Your SEO Actions Expose You As A Cheater Or A Star Read More »
As a small business mentor, I see so many startups willing to risk everything on an untested idea. Since they like their idea, they are sure they know everyone who sees it will too.
Have You Defined Your Leap of Faith Assumptions? Read More »
Find The Keywords That Search Engines Use To Rank Your Better Performing Pages So You Can Improve Your Pages Position In The Search Engines.
How To Find The Best Performing Keywords And Rank Higher In SERP Read More »
Leadership and management are both essential elements of business success. Leadership is closely aligned with the role of a CEO and Management to the role of the President. Even though there is a difference between leadership and management most people use them interchangeably which is incorrect.
What is the Difference Between Leadership and Management in Small Business? Read More »
What Makes A Good Backlink? The Answer Includes Relevance, Diversity, Location On The Page And Keyword Usage And Placement. While You Can’t Directly Control Your Off-Page SEO, It Is Important To Understand How The Construction Of The Backlink Affects How The Search Engines View You As The Destination For The Link.
What You Need to Know About a Backlink and SEO Read More »
What is operating leverage and why should you care? Ignoring the financial mumbo-jumbo, operating leverage represents how having debt can affect a company’s bottom line profit. In some cases, Operating leverage can improve a company’s profits and in others, it can destroy it.
Operating Leverage for Small Business: When You Should Use Read More »
The Most Important Factor in SEO Is Also the Hardest. On-Page SEO Represents All the Things That You Can Directly Control. Off-Page SEO Primarily Consists of Getting Links, Known as A Backlink to Your Pages or Your Site from Other Websites on The Internet, Which Are Out of Your Direct Control. Therefore, While Getting Backlinks Is the Most Important Part Of SEO, It Is Also the Hardest.
What You Need to Know About Link Building Read More »
There is an art to writing a great attention-grabbing headline. However, there are a few tried and true formulas that generate more click-throughs than others.
How to Write a Great Headline for a Post Read More »
On-Page Visible Elements Include Headings, Images, Paragraph Text, And Other Formatting Elements. Proper Use of Visual Elements Can Make Your Web Page Easier for The User to Read and Help Highlight the Search Engines Your Keywords.
What You Need To Know About On-Page Visible Elements And SEO Read More »
When We Talk About On-Page But Hidden SEO Techniques We Are Talking About Several Clues You Can Provide To The Search Engines To Tell Them What Your Content Is About. It Can Also Control What And How Your Message Is Displayed In Search Results
On-Page But Hidden SEO Techniques You Need To Understand Read More »
Most businesses have been encouraged to focus on relationship builders salespersons. Unfortunately, the study shows relationship builders have the fewest number of top performers. There are in fact 5 salesperson archetypes and one out performs the others by more than 2X.
The Five Salesperson Archetypes and the One that Performs Best Read More »
Using The Proper Keywords That You Have A Realistic Chance To Rank For In A Search Engine Is How You Become Visible To New Customers. The Key Is To Finding Powerful Keywords Is To Find Ones That Have A Good Search Volume But Limited Competition.
20 Steps to Find Powerful Keywords Google will Rank High Read More »
Word-of-mouth marketing is not just making a good product or delivering a good service, and magically your clients will tell their friends how great you are, which will, in turn, lead to a greater number of sales. To achieve an epidemic you must employ some specific strategies.
How to Achieve a Word-of-Mouth Epidemic Read More »
To Make Your Website Visible To The Public It Needs To Be Found And Indexed By The Search Engines And To Be Properly Indexed You Need To Focus On Your Keywords.
Keywords-Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask Read More »
SEO Primer – What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Understand About How to Improve Their Content to Generate More Organic Website Traffic
SEO Primer – Everything Small Businesses Needs to Know About SEO Read More »
Many entrepreneurs do not understand the difference between a business and economic model. Simply put a Business Model is primarily customer-focused while an Economic Model is owner-focused.
Why You Need To Know How Your Economic Model Drives Profit Read More »
Running a small business is complicated, especially if you have employees. As a manager, you have many tasks that have to be organized into a chain of subtasks and to assign responsibility to team members and subordinates if you want to succeed. A RASCI chart is the answer.
RASCI Chart – How to Manage Employee Roles and Responsibilities Read More »
Business owners can use a PESTEL analysis to assess which macro-environmental elements could potentially impact the success of their business. Each of the six elements of the PESTEL analysis can either impede a company’s growth potential or serve as a strategic opportunity.
How to Improve Your Odds of Success by Conducting a PESTEL Analysis Read More »
When buying or selling a business and the discussion comes around to financing options, few have ever considered the role of an earn-out. An earn-out can benefit both the buyer and the seller when used properly.
How to Increase Business Sale Profits with an Earn-Out Read More »
